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Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
Moffett, Thomas (1553-1604) Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum.
London: Ex officinâ typographicâ Thom. Cotes. Et venales extant apud Guiliel. Hope, 1634.
First edition, one of three variants printed in the same year; large woodcut of a beehive on title page surrounded by smaller vignettes of insects and other invertebrates; bound in modern full leather, older blind embossed library stamp to title page; extensive text woodcuts throughout the text; some minor worming, trimmed a bit close, 11 x 7 in.
Moffett's Insectorum, issued posthumously from an original manuscript, was the first work of entomology published in England, and the most accurate work available in the period. Beginning with original research by Conrad Gesner that was subsequently continued by Thomas Penny (pulling from Edward Wotton) Moffett brought it all together with his own observations. The striking woodcuts are both aesthetically pleasing and accurate, depicting all sorts of creatures in each phase of their metamorphic lives.
STC 17993a; ESTC S114928; Garrison-Morton 288; Norman 1528.
